Pain Reprocessing THerapy in Bothell and Online Throughout Washington State
Chronic Pain Therapy in Seattle
You Used to Be Able to Do All of This Without Thinking Twice
You were the person who hiked Rattlesnake Ledge on Saturday morning and felt fine by Monday. You ran the Burke-Gilman three days a week, signed up for rec leagues, carried groceries up three flights of stairs without a second thought. Your body just worked.
Now there's pain that won't leave: Your back tightens up during meetings, your neck aches by noon, your wrists hurt after an hour of typing. Some days are manageable. Other days you cancel plans because you can't predict how your body will feel by evening. You've started turning down invitations before you even check whether you want to go, because saying yes means risking a flare-up that could sideline you for days.
You've seen your doctor, done the imaging, tried physical therapy, maybe acupuncture or chiropractic. Your MRI came back clean, your bloodwork is normal, and you've been told to manage your stress, try yoga, or just give it time. But the pain hasn't gone away, and the explanations you've been given don't match what you're experiencing in your body. You're still wincing on the stairs to your Capitol Hill apartment, still dreading the walk from the parking garage to your office in South Lake Union.
You know something is off, and you're looking for someone who can actually help you figure out what's driving it.
You can learn more about Pain Reprocessing Therapy, including who it works best for and what changes in the weeks after we start, on my chronic pain therapy page.
When Tests Come Back Normal but the Pain Is Still There
About 85% of people with chronic back pain don't have structural damage that explains their symptoms, and the same is true for many cases of neck pain, migraines, fibromyalgia, repetitive strain injuries, IBS, and conditions doctors can't identify a cause for.
Brain imaging studies show that people experiencing this kind of pain have the same brain activity as people with pain from a broken bone or a torn ligament. The pain isn't imaginary, and you're not making it up.
The difference is in what's generating the signal. When pain sticks around long after an injury has healed, or shows up without any injury at all, your brain may have learned to keep sending danger signals even when there’s nothing to protect you from.
The brain gets better at producing pain through repetition, the same way you get better at anything you practice.
And fear of the pain makes it worse: when you tense up before bending over, skip the hike because last time it triggered a flare-up, or wake up scanning your body to see "how bad is it today," you're reinforcing your brain's belief that there's something to be afraid of.
The pain gets louder. Your world gets smaller. And you start making decisions based on what your body might do rather than what you actually want.
Here's what matters: your brain learned this response, and it can unlearn it. The changes that produce chronic pain can be reversed, sometimes completely.
Pain Reprocessing Therapy: a different approach for chronic pain
I use Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), an evidence-based approach specifically designed to address pain generated by the nervous system rather than structural damage.
PRT works by helping your brain relearn how to interpret what your body is telling it. When your brain has learned to sound a false alarm, specific techniques can teach it to recognize those signals as safe again. The cycle between pain and fear breaks, and the pain can fade.
What makes my approach different from a practice that only uses PRT: most people with chronic pain aren't dealing with pain in isolation. You might be carrying years of high stress, perfectionism, difficult past experiences, or a body that's been running on high alert long before the pain ever started.
I combine PRT with body-based therapy, trauma treatment (EMDR), and work that helps your whole system calm down, not just the pain response.
In a clinical trial published in JAMA Psychiatry, 66% of participants reported being pain-free or nearly pain-free after treatment, and 98% experienced significant reduction. Those results held a year later.
Your life can change after therapy for chronic pain
You pick up your three-year-old without bracing yourself first, without that split-second calculation of whether your back can handle it. You just scoop her up because she’s asking, and you don't think about it again for the rest of the afternoon.
You cook dinner standing at the counter for forty-five minutes, chopping vegetables, stirring the pan, loading the dishwasher afterward, and you realize halfway through that you didn’t switch to a stool at the twenty-minute mark the way you've been doing for the past year.
You bike to work down the Burke-Gilman on a Wednesday morning because you feel like it, not because you spent the night before weighing whether the ride would wreck your back for the rest of the week. And when you get home that evening, you're tired in the normal way, not the pain-tired way that sends you straight to the heating pad.
You sit through your daughter’s entire two-hour dance recital without shifting in your seat every three minutes, without the low-grade dread of how stiff you'll be when you stand up. You watch the whole thing, and afterward you take her out for ice cream instead of going home to lie down.
Your partner suggests a camping trip to Olympic National Park and you say yes without the caveat. No mental inventory of how many ibuprofen to pack, no backup plan for sleeping in the car if the tent is too much. You go, you sleep on the ground, you wake up and hike the Hoh Rainforest the next morning.
You apply for the job that requires three days a week in the office instead of filtering your search by "remote only." You stop building your career around what your body might not tolerate and start building it around what you actually want to do.
You stop being the person who cancels. You show up to the dinner in Wallingford, the Sunday market at Ballard, the birthday party across town, and you stay for the whole thing.
Schedule Your First Session
Schedule Your First Session
Who is Pain Reprocessing Therapy For?
You have chronic pain that doesn't have a clear medical explanation, or pain that has persisted long after an injury should have healed.
Common conditions include, but aren’t limited to: back pain, neck pain, knee pain, migraines, IBS, fibromyalgia, repetitive strain injuries, pelvic pain, post-surgical pain that won’t resolve, and conditions where doctors haven’t been able to identify a structural cause.
You suspect there's a connection between your pain and stress, your emotional life, or something your body is doing that medicine hasn't been able to explain.
Or maybe the mind-body connection is a newer idea for you, and you're open to exploring it because what you've tried so far hasn't given you lasting relief.
You want to be more than your pain. You remember who you were before this started, and you want to get back to living from that identity rather than from a list of limitations.
This approach isn't the right fit if you're involved in ongoing legal matters related to your pain, such as disability claims, worker's comp cases, or lawsuits. It also isn't right if you're looking exclusively for medical or pharmaceutical solutions and aren't open to exploring how your brain and body interact, or if you haven't yet had a medical evaluation to rule out conditions that need medical treatment.
You don't have to be fully convinced your pain has a mind-body component to start. What matters is willingness to explore the possibility.
Get Started in Chronic Pain Therapy
I work with clients throughout the Seattle area via secure telehealth, so you can access chronic pain therapy from Capitol Hill, Ballard, Fremont, Queen Anne, West Seattle, the University District, or anywhere in King County without a commute or a waiting room.
I also see clients in person at my Bothell office.
If you're dealing with pain that doctors can't fully explain and you're looking for a different kind of answer, reach out. We'll talk about your situation and whether this approach makes sense for what you're dealing with.
Serving Seattle and Surrounding Areas
Including Shoreline, Lynnwood, Burien, Renton, Kent, Federal Way, West Seattle, Tukwila, SeaTac, Everett, and throughout King County.
Questions?
FAQs About Chronic Pain Therapy
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Individual sessions are $300 for 50 minutes. I don't accept insurance directly, which means I'm not limited by what an insurance company decides is medically necessary or how many sessions they'll approve. You pay at the time of the session, and I provide a superbill you can submit to your insurance for potential out-of-network reimbursement. Many PPO plans reimburse a portion after your deductible is met. I recommend calling the number on the back of your insurance card before your first session to ask about your out-of-network mental health benefits.
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Most pain management programs assume the pain is permanent and teach you to cope with it: pacing strategies, relaxation techniques, medication, learning to accept a smaller life. Pain Reprocessing Therapy has a different goal. Rather than helping you build your life around the pain, PRT works to reduce or eliminate the pain itself by retraining the brain patterns that are generating it. In the clinical trial published in JAMA Psychiatry, 66% of participants were pain-free or nearly pain-free after treatment, and those results held a year later.
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No. You can continue with any medical care, physical therapy, or other treatment you’re receiving. Some clients find that as their pain decreases, they naturally need less of their other interventions, but that's a decision you make with your other providers over time.
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A few indicators: your imaging or tests have come back normal or don't fully explain the level of pain you're experiencing. Your pain has persisted long after an injury should have healed. Your pain moves around, or it started during or after a stressful period in your life. You've noticed that stress makes it worse and distraction or relaxation makes it better. You don't need all of these to be true, but if a few of them sound familiar, your pain may respond well to this approach.
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You don’t need to be convinced, you just need to be open. Many of my clients come in skeptical, and that’s fine. The research is strong enough that you don’t have to take it on faith. What matters is a willingness to try something different after the conventional route hasn't given you lasting results. Where this approach tends not to work is when someone is certain that only a medical or surgical solution will help and isn't willing to explore other possibilities, or when there's an active legal case connected to the pain, like a disability claim or lawsuit, because the incentive structure works against the recovery process.
About Ingrid Johnston, LMFT, MDFT
Seattle chronic pain therapist
I’m a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Washington State, specializing in chronic pain therapy.
I’ve completed Pain Reprocessing Therapy training and hold advanced certification in Medical Family Therapy and Collaborative Medicine. My approach combines somatic therapy, trauma treatment, and nervous system regulation.
I understand this work both professionally and personally. I've navigated my own path through chronic pain and learned firsthand how pain can take over your identity, your plans, and your sense of what's possible for your life.
I’m a member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) and the Washington Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (WAMFT).
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist: Washington State License #LF61033631
Get started in chronic pain therapy today from anywhere in Seattle.
If you’ve tried other approaches and you’re still in pain, this might be the missing piece. Reach out to ask questions or schedule a first session.
Get In Touch
Contact Ingrid
Please complete the form, and I will be in touch within 48 business hours.
Office and mailing address:
19803 North Creek Parkway, Suite 205
Bothell, WA 98011
In-person in Bothell & online across Washington